The House on Friday passed a package of bills to ease Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations against the coal industry, an issue Republicans are banking on to attract voters who will bear the brunt of increased electricity rates as a result of the Obama administration rules.

The Republican measure passed on a vote of 233 to 175 with 19 Democrats voting to support it, and 13 Republicans voting no.

Since taking office, the Obama administration has waged a multi-front war on coal, on coal jobs, on the small businesses in the mining supply chain, and on the low-cost energy that millions of Americans rely upon, said Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

An estimated 2,000 jobs have been lost in the coal industry this year, with another 10,000 layoffs in direct and related jobs expecting in coming months. This week, Alpha Natural Resources announced they were closing eight mines and cutting 1,200 jobs, citing aggressive regulations as the reason for the companys failure. The coal industry estimates its labor force at 135,000.

President Obamas war on coal is real, Hastings said. The lost jobs are already happening and thousands more are at risk. Americans energy costs are already too high, and the war on coal will drive them higher.

It wouldn't pass the Senate anyway but this is a huge opportunity for Romney.

All Romney has to do is say that within 24 hours after taking the oath, he will sign an executive order to force the EPA to stand down on the Coal Industry, open the Keystone Pipeline, open up Alaska, etc.

6
posted on 09/21/2012 3:43:34 PM PDT
by tobyhill
(Obamacare, the final nail in the US coffin.)

It’s too bad that Republicans have no real understanding of Obama’s so-called war on coal. While Obama fights coal in the Eastern part of the country, he subsidizes and facilitates coal mining in western states, opening up new coal fields in Wyoming that multiply the amount of coal leases exponentially.

The western coal is all on federally leased land, owned by Indian tribes and is intended to be shipped out to China. Obama made a deal with Richard Trumka (former chief thug of the United Mine Workers) to fight coal in the east and push it in the west, two mollify the coal unions. Obama is facilitating the subsidizing of coal carrying railroads, which are struggling in the east, but are in line to benefit from the western sub-bituminous coal.

Even if the Senate passed it and Obama signed it, there’s no way in hell Obama would honor or enforce it. The Constitution and duly enacted laws are for little people. Barry transcends minor annoyances like those.

All Romney has to do is say that within 24 hours after taking the oath, he will sign an executive order to force the EPA to stand down on the Coal Industry, open the Keystone Pipeline, open up Alaska, etc.

I'm gonna hold my nose and vote for Romney, but let's be realistic here. He is no more going to reverse any of Obama's illegal EOs than Bush did after Clinton. Republicans don't do that. The Dems are stupid on one count. They don't realize that even if they lose, they still win. We never get back the liberties the Dems steal.

That is true that it has been a long term trend, but this goes beyond forcing coal fired power plants in this country to shift to sub-bituminous. This is a move to ship the sub-bituminous coal to China, rather than burn it here, which requires new coal terminals along the coasts of Oregon and WA, because part of Obama’s over all agenda is to shift the center of trade away from the Mississippi to the west coast and do it all by rail.

Obama thinks that he can please the environmentalists as well as the union workers with this strategy. The only problem is that WA and Oregon don’t want giant coal terminals and endless coal trains along their coasts.

Doc Hastings is an idiot. WA State only had one coal powered electric plant and that has already been scheduled for shut down. WA has more clean hydro power than we can use and residents here are fighting the coal trains that Obama is pushing to move coal from Wyoming to the west coast for shipment to China.

I worked in a coal plant near Rock Springs, WY in the early '70s. Those unit trains are huge. It would be horrible to have dozens of those passing through OR and WA every day on the way to the coast.

You can cut the irony with a knife...Obama shuts down scores of coal plants in the US and won't build the Keystone pipeline, but those same resources could be shipped to China. That makes us nothing but a Chinese colony.

This is quite surprising given the enormous abundance of coal in China.

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